In recent years, automobile manufacturers are more commonly using active grille shutter systems to enable at least some control of the flow of air through the engine compartment. In a conventional, front-engine, water-cooled automobile, air is drawn through the front grille and into the engine compartment, either pulled in by the radiator fan or forced in by the movement of the vehicle in motion through the air. Generally, active grille shutter systems include moveable shutters that can open and close. When open, the shutters allow air to flow through the radiator and into the engine compartment to promote cooling of the engine. Under certain operating conditions when cooling is not needed, the shutters can be closed, thus diverting air around the vehicle to lessen aerodynamic drag and reduce fuel consumption. Moreover, closing the shutters reduces engine warm-up time by reducing the flow of relatively cold air through the radiator and around the engine of the vehicle. Decreased engine warm-up time may improve the emissions performance of certain engines and may further aid in warming the passenger compartment more quickly, including defrosting the windshield.
The front grille of many, if not most, vehicles is a prominent signature feature of a vehicle's design and includes stylized, complex surfaces having curvature and compound angles relative to the principal axes of the vehicle. However, conventional active grille shutter systems require that the grille surface be predominantly flat with shutters that rotated about a single, straight axis. Further, such grille shutter systems are generally not scalable to enable multiple sets of shutters rotating about different angles. Consequently, conventional active grille shutter systems are generally planar, having no curvature relative to the axes of the vehicle. Moreover, conventional active grille shutter systems are separate from the vehicle's stylized front grille and are positioned behind or rearward of that front grille, which may add cost, mass and space requirements to the vehicle. Therefore, there remains a significant need for the apparatuses, methods, and systems disclosed herein.